By 2011, the 42-year-old had 11 marathons under her belt. She’d also made quite the name for herself on the tennis court. By Labor Day weekend, the University Park mother was even combining the two, running 20 miles one day and then competing in a three-hour tennis tournament in the next.

For good measure, Sewall ran 10 miles the day after that and played in the same tennis tournament for three more hours. Which is why it was so shocking when her husband found her face-up unconscious in the family’s tub one night.

This woman’s husband luckily knew CPR and saved her life. I often think how important it is to keep up with these skills. The last time I had a CPR class was probably 15 years ago. I need a refresher. If you are reading this, perhaps you need one also. I am lucky that, like the woman described in the story, I have a built in defibrillator in my chest, but most people don’t. Saving a loved one’s life is certainly worth the time to take a course or there are even CPR books, CDs and products that might be helpful or if you want to be even more prepared, you can even buy your own defibrillator. Even if you or your family seems fairly young and healthy, it’s good to be prepared.

Helen Smith is a psychologist specializing in forensic issues in Knoxville, Tennessee, and blogs at Dr. Helen.

To be fair, that study is for ultra marathons, which typically start at 40 miles, which is a marathon with a side order of half-marathon on top. And other ultras are longer, even 100 mile marathons that can take about 20-24 hours straight.

Right, I’m referring to the article you linked, which you prefaced by saying marathons were its subject, where it was ultras being discussed, that’s all. A verbal quibble but a body-busting difference.

One of the real problems with CPR is the mindset that if your out of cert, you shouldn’t attempt it. There are good reasons for re-cert and also financial reasons for trainers and AHA but it instills a sense of uncertainty. Not to mention, being out of cert implies possible liability for poor performance although I don’t think that would stick in court.

As with everything, it gets made so complicated it loses its effectiveness as the “experts” come up with one more detail for the perfect way to do it rather than sticking with the good way that saves lives because it gets used.

Fortunately cooler heads have prevailed and they now promote Rapid Chest Compressions as a hands-only method with great success. Best of all, so far, you don’t have to check your wallet to ensure your up to date before saving a life.

Let me take this opportunity to comment on the Heart Attack illustrated with this post compared to Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Heart Attack usually means a blockage in the arteries feeding the heart, while cardiac arrest means the heart is not beating or no longer able to pump blood. SCA is a broader category and includes arrhythmias not caused by a blockage. Atrial Fibrillation got me even though my cardiac arteries are mostly clear.

Comment 4 is right on point, the illustration confused me for a bit because it wasn’t what the article was about. But on that topic, of occlusions of the arteries, it would be good if more people were aware that they can get a diagnostic level CTA done on their heart and arteries. I had mine done this last February and my wife’s last year. It has to be at least 128 slice to be of diagnostic quality and to show soft plaque. For $711 (I had to pay it all myself as insurance wouldn’t cover it) I now know that I have two locations of 20% or less soft plaque so have virtually no danger of a clot breaking loose and blocking an artery.

Marathons do not cycle physical stress in a healthy way but in a chronic one instead. All that extra oxidative metabolism is exactly what can tip the blood system into clogging up with oxidized (spoiled) fatty substances. Such extreme physical activity provides a drug like high and besides destroying knees is little different from the usual sudden heart attack of a cocaine addict. Pretending this aging extreme athelete is just anybody is quite an act of playing dumb. How many healthy 80 year olds do you see jogging around as opposed to calmly walking around and enjoying a glass of wine at a cafe? More women than men have heart attacks, but the stereotype of that of the hard driving type A driven businessman. Looking at the video, this gal is rather over intense and masculine, suggesting that her stress level (adrenaline and cortisol) has been elevated for years instead of cycled between high stress and major relaxation. Heart attacks hit the hard heads, which is what she is.

Technically the defibrillator doesn’t start anything, it stops a heart that is firing chaotically and the hope is that when the cardiac cells repolarize they will do so in an orderly manner that facilitates circulation. 3.JKB brought up a great point. The focus on CPR now is rapid, deep chest compressions. It takes several compressions to achieve the pressure necessary for decent perfusion (and no matter how well you do compressions you won’t get the same kind of circulation that the heart provides)so every time you stop compressing you put yourself behind the eight ball and have to recover that pressure when you start again. Remember you’re not trying to save the heart, you’re trying to save the brain. Compress about 2 inches above the point where the sternum ends, compress 2.5 inches deep and at a rate of 100/minute. Try to allow for full recoil after each compression. Also, it seems crazy, but there have been instances of people doing compressions on those who are unconcious but not in arrest. I’m sure P.J. Media readers would never dream of doing compressions on someone with a pulse but it never hurts to remind people to check.

RightwingHippyChick and NikFromNYC are right: chronic cardio at these levels is not “healthy.” It may be “athletic” but that is not the same thing. You are asking the body to adapt to a level of physical stress for which it is not designed. I say this as an avid exerciser and fitness professional.

I recall that some marathon runners who ordinarily have normal blood pressure experience hypertension once they have exercised for a long while.
The elevated BP is not noticeable otherwise.
Seems like we humans need someone to invent a 24×7, real-time monitor of various critical biomarkers.
This means you, bioengineers.

There’s an inclination running through these comments to blame the ultramarathoning as being an underlying cause of stress and damage to the heart and thus causing sudden cardiac arrest. Yet a friend of mine, a healthy 50-year-old cyclist — a good cycling buff but not an extremist by any means — pedaled to work only to be found unconscious in the locker room by a co-worker. His heart had stopped. Luckily the coworker knew CPR and paramedics arrived quickly enough to save him. No one knows why his heart stopped — his electrolytes were fine, his heart was in perfect condition, there were more or less ordinary amounts of calcium buildup in his coronary arteries for a man his age, there were no pulse irregularities to point to. His cardiologist remains stumped. If there was an underlying cause it remains undiscovered — and it is just possible that a tiny element of chaos lurks — it may be very rare, but then, for no observable reason, something simply goes haywire. Some so-called “butterfly effect.” Makes CPR seem like a great thing to know.